Social Aspects of the Covid-19 Pandemic

In a short period of time, the Covid-19 pandemic has globally exposed and expanded areas of social and living standard inequalities. Because health care and social aspects of the pandemic are directly related and interconnected, some authors even speak of a “syndemic”. That is why the question of who to save is not only a health and medical problem, but also a social problem. Based on the experience of Covid-19, it is necessary, above all, to counter the systemic social inequalities that have become invisible through decades of consenting to increasing social differences, systemic violence, poverty, and exclusion. While the direct victims of the pandemic were mainly older people, research has shown that the circle of its indirect victims is much wider. Mainly young people have shown a large increase in psychosocial problems as a result of the pandemic containment measures. Research across the world and in Slovenia calls attention to the increased degree of distress and anxiety amongst the young. In Slovenia, young people experienced one of the longest closures of schools and day-care centres in Europe, which points to the lack of sensitivity in Slovenian society for the specific situation of the life of young people. An increase in risky behaviour and the need for psychological help are only some of the problems that young people are facing after the Covid-19 pandemic and which are now seen to occur in Slovenia and elsewhere. However, young people’s mental distress and problems should not be individualised. Young people’s psychological crises have a social origin.